You Don't Say: Pelosi Worried About Murtha Corruption Probe

You could have fooled me that the House Democrats were worried about corruption and the appearance of impropriety. After all, they have been extremely busy defending Rep. Charles Rangel from a GOP effort to strip him of his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee as an ethics panel investigates his tax evasion and ethics violations.

They have been busy ignoring Rep. William Jefferson's freezer stuffed with cold cash that is now the subject of a federal bribery and corruption investigation.

And now, they're worried about the reprehensible Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania who was reelected to his seat despite showing utter disdain to his own constituents and the residents of rural Pennsylvania and the ongoing concerns about his ties to lobbyist groups and improprieties.

It turns out that there was good reason to be concerned about this former unindicted coconspirator of the ABSCAM case. The FBI is busy looking through the records of close associates.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders are “concerned” by a widening criminal probe that may involve Rep. John P. Murtha, but sources close to the leadership say there’s no move afoot to force him out as chairman of the powerful Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.

“We are watching to see what happens,” said a senior House Democratic aide. “At this point, there is nothing for us to do. There is not a clear indication yet that Mr. Murtha has done anything wrong or that the Justice Department is targeting him in any way, so there is no reason to take any action.”

The new worries about Murtha come in the wake of news of a November raid of the PMA Group, a lobbying firm with close ties to the veteran Pennsylvania Democrat.

PMA was founded in 1989 by former Murtha aide Paul Magliocchetti and was ranked the 10th biggest lobbying firm in Washington as recently as last year. But a source close to the firm said it has “disintegrated” over the past few days, with Magliocchetti heading off to potential retirement in Florida and other top lobbyists there busy starting up their own new company.

Several sources told Politico on Wednesday that Magliocchetti has hired a criminal defense attorney to represent him in the probe, but attempts to reach Magliocchetti for comment were unsuccessful.

Note too that they're not so concerned that they would strip him of his chairmanship either.

This is getting to be a regular pattern with the Democrats since Pelosi took over. She regularly looks the other way as her caucus engages in corrupt and unethical practices, and continues to appoint these individuals to high ranking posts.